Tuesday

Oct 12, 2010 at 2:54 PMOct 12, 2010 at 3:00 PM

Ever since Worcester County Sheriff Guy Glodis lost the Democratic primary for state auditor last month, rumors have been swirling about Glodis' role in the race to succeed him between Republican Lew Evangelidis and Democrat Tom Foley.

There's also an independent in the field, Keith Nicholas, but his name doesn't come up in the rumors.

In any event, version Number One has Glodis, a Democrat, secretly backing Evangelidis in exchange for a job for Glodis at the Worcester County Jail. This would pad out Glodis' pension.

In version Number Two, Glodis will publicly endorse Evangelidis.

Meantime, similar rumors have the veteran jail administrator whom Foley defeated in the primary, Scot Bove, freeing his people to go with Evangelidis.

I called Glodis to get his version. “That's ridiculous,” he said.

“I do have some supporters who are supporting Evangelidis,” he continued. “But I'm letting people make their own decisions. My supporters are free to support whoever they want.

“They're both good candidates,” he said, referring to Evangelidis and Foley.

Glodis, who has 14 years as a state employee, noted that he is already vested in the state pension system, which requires a minimum of 10 years (though he would get a bigger pension with more years in). His six-year sheriff's term goes until the end of the year.

“No deals have been struck,” he said.

I also asked Glodis whether he had any job prospects. Other rumors have him lobbying for a Boston radio talk show or signing on with Commerce Bank, where he worked part-time as a loan development officer while he was in the Legislature from 1998 to 2004.

“That's all rumors,” Glodis said. “I've had a couple of people who have made offers, but there's nothing concrete. I'm looking at them, and I'll look at them closer as the winter comes.”

Issues, issues, issues.

All too often, local legislative races are not about them, but rather the candidates' personalities, who they know, how many friends they have, and so on.

So it's good to see that Democratic state representative candidate John Mahoney has sharpened his focus on issues by beefing up his issue page on his campaign website.

Interestingly, Mahoney, a bar owner, opposes a ballot question that would roll back the sales tax on alcohol imposed by the Legislature last year.

He also opposes the third question facing voters on the Nov. 2 ballot this year. It would cut the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent.

Speaking of issues, while Mahoney hadn't responded to a local business group's recent issue survey as of last week, both his Republican opponent, Paul Franco, and the independent candidate in the 13th Worcester District race, Ron Madnick, didn't respond to an AARP questionnaire on issues affecting the elderly.

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